Heroes Of Olympus: The House of Hades
by epicsilverbullet
Summary: Warning: Mark of Athena spoilers! Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase are trapped in Tartarus. The remaining five of the seven, plus Nico di Angelo and Coach Hedge, are on the Argo ll, sailing through the mortal world. They need to close the Doors of Death from the House of Hades while Percy and Annabeth fight to close them from Tartarus, the other entrance. The question is: how?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes: **So, obviously, this is the next book in the "Heroes of Olympus" series, and it also obviously has Mark of Athena spoilers, so if you haven't read the Mark of Athena already, then read that before you read this! It was really good!

I'm aiming to finish this story before the actual book comes out. I may be cutting it a bit fine, especially as we get closer to the reveal date (October 2013), but it'll happen.

******Disclaimer: **I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Heroes of Olympus series. All characters, settings, and other attributes belong to Rick Riordan.

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**Percy**

Falling into Tartarus was one of the most surreal experiences he'd ever had. It was as if time had slowed down, almost to a stop, except he knew that wasn't possible because (and he could discern this from the wind rushing around him) they were actually speeding up. The only possible explanation was that the fall was so long that they had reached terminal velocity.

Well, _that_ wasn't good.

He'd once read an article in the newspaper (for the first and _god-willing_ final time in his life- the words were all written too small and bled out all over the page) about a man who tried suicide once by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. He didn't die. In the article, he said, "Once I was halfway down, I thought it was a bad idea."

It was played for laughs in the article, and Percy took it as dark satire once he read it, but it was a different situation when the reader experienced it for themselves.

When he and Annabeth were dangling from the floor a few short seconds ago, all he was thinking was that it was his duty and that what he was about to do was necessary. Now, all he could think about was how big of a mistake he'd made.

But, no! It wasn't a mistake! It was necessary! _There has to be someone shutting the Doors and fighting the battles from this side, too,_ he reasoned. _We went over this with Nico._ It took a few moments (probably only a second or two in real time) for him to calm himself, but once he did, all his worries cleared away.

The same, unfortunately, could not be said for Annabeth.

He looked over at her, and, startled, noticed that her eyes were shut. Not squeezed shut like she was afraid, but just...shut. Like how someone's eyes look when they're unconscious.

_She must have passed out,_ he reasoned. From fear or from pain, he didn't know. But what he _did _know was that there would be a lot more pain for her if he didn't do something about cushioning the fall for both of them.

Thinking quickly, he slinked an arm around her waist and pulled her so that she was resting on top of him, sheltered from whatever would come. He didn't feel any fear at the moment (like any normal person would while anticipating the impact of a hundred-story fall), he just knew that he had to protect Annabeth.

It took a little shifting to make sure that she was snug on top of him, and when he was certain that she was more or less protected, he grabbed the backpack out of the air (it was falling next to them) and shrugged into it to protect himself.

Everything that just happened took place in a total of about eight seconds, yet it felt like a lot more to Percy. Later, he would be glad that it was only eight seconds, because any longer, and he might not even have survived the fall.

And then there was impact.

He must have blacked out from the pain for a while, because when his senses returned, he realized that he was laying flat on his back against a cool stone floor, a bit bumpy and textured against the burning muscles of his back, and when he tried to suck in a breath, he choked on a square of ambrosia and noticed that Annabeth was shaking him, trying to get him to wake up. "Percy! Oh, please don't be dead, wake up!"

He swallowed the ambrosia, and the first wave of pain that came with slamming into a stone floor at terminal velocity seemed to get a little more bearable, which wasn't saying all that much. "I'm-" he winced at the pain it took even to talk, suspecting that something may be wrong with his ribs, "-I'm fine, Annabeth."

She stared at him for a second, as if she couldn't believe her eyes, and then sat back on her heels, exhausted. "Oh. Oh...oh, god." She brushed some hair out of her eyes. "What- what happened?"

Percy laughed and tried to hoist himself up from the position he was in, but was barely able to suppress the cry of pain that came with it. He collapsed back on the stone floor, a cold sweat starting to break out on his face. Something was definitely wrong with his ribs, and more than likely there was something wrong with his back, too.

Thank the gods for Annabeth- he'd really have to send her a thank-you card with a box of chocolates sometime- for stuffing more ambrosia into his mouth, a little piece at a time, until he could sit up again, and he gently scooted himself over until he was propped up against one of the walls of something vaguely cavern-like, in the underground world that was Tartarus.

It was only then that the thought occurred to him, and he turned to Annabeth to ask. "Where did you get the ambrosia?"

"Well," she said, coming over to sit next to him, "when I was fighting Arachnae and the floor started to collapse, my backpack, which had Daedalus's laptop in it, and my dagger fell with us." She held up all the items, including Daedalus's laptop, which, surprisingly, didn't even have a scratch on it. Percy suspected it might have been another one of Daedalus's technological advancements at work. "Turns out that everything that fell from Arachnae's room fell in the same spot."

It was then that a cold wave of fear washed over Percy's body. "Does that include Arachnae?"

Annabeth shrugged and hugged her knees up to her chest, fear seeming to settle over her, too, though she tried to hide it. "I don't know. Maybe there's a separate section of Tartarus for reforming monsters? And you still haven't told me what happened during the fall. How we survived."

Percy snuck another piece of ambrosia from a side pocket in Annabeth's backpack (she wouldn't let him have any more on the precaution that it was probably lethal, but he needed it) and relayed the eventful eight seconds after he let go of the floor.

"We were falling. I was scared, but tried to remain calm so we didn't die. I saw you black out, so I got under you and put the backpack on my back, so we were both cushioned. The fall wasn't that long- less than ten seconds- but I'm guessing it was pretty bad."

Annabeth looked horrified. "Percy, human terminal velocity is one hundred-twenty miles an hour! In eight seconds, we fell a quarter mile! How are you still alive?" She looked down at herself. "How the heck am _I_ still alive?"

"Wow. A quarter mile?" The fall didn't seem too long to Percy when it was happening. A quarter mile made it seem a lot more menacing. "How do you know that?"

"1 mile per hour is about one and a half feet per second- well, actually, it's more like 1.46666666 feet per second- but if you multiply that by human terminal velocity, you get how far we'd fallen in one second, which is about 176 feet, and that multiplied by eight seconds, the length of the fall, is-"

"A quarter mile," Percy finished. "Jesus. How _am_ I still alive?"

Annabeth shrugged. "Maybe physics gets thrown out of the window in Tartarus. Maybe human terminal velocity changes in certain areas. Maybe we're too light to even _achieve_ terminal velocity. The possibilities are endless."

Percy agreed with that idea (mainly because he had nothing intellectual to add to the conversation) and the two sat in silence for a while. Percy didn't know what Annabeth was thinking, but he was wondering about what the task ahead of them would bring.

To the extent of his knowledge before that very moment, Tartarus was just a deep, bottomless pit. He hadn't really thought about it any more than that, but, looking around him, he saw that a deep, bottomless pit certainly wasn't the case.

Tartarus just seemed like an extremely large cavern, probably even a series of caverns. He was sitting against a stone wall, the floor seemed to be made of stone, and there were stalactites hanging from the ceiling. He didn't see any stalagmites on the floor, which was probably the only good thing that had happened to them since Arachnae's temple- the absence of stalagmites would mean one less hazard to worry about.

Ghostly, inhuman wails and screeches echoed around various parts of the cavern, and he shuddered at the thought of what they could possibly be, and having to go through all of that for Hades knows how long. He knew it would be a tough journey, definitely tougher than anything else he'd ever done, and he thought he'd rather hold up the sky again than travel through Tartarus, which was saying a lot.

But they _had_ to do it. Percy wasn't too sure of his fighting ability, but he knew that, with Annabeth at his side, they at least stood a slim chance. And he'd take a slim chance over no chance at all every day, but to increase their chances to the maximum, they'd have to know more about the place they were in...

He turned to Annabeth. "Annabeth? What's Tartarus like?"

She nodded like she was expecting the question, still staring straight ahead as if trying in vain to see the far wall of the cavern that they were in. "That's what I've been thinking about."

She turned to him and began talking. "In the old myths, only monsters, Kronos, and the absolute worst mortals on earth got sent here. The monsters would slowly reform, the mortals would be tortured for all eternity, and Kronos...well, you know about Kronos."

Percy nodded. They'd defeated the Lord of Time almost half a year ago, but that didn't mean that he didn't wake up in the middle of the night from a nightmare about the war they defeated him in. About the large death toll that he still couldn't help but take the blame for, at least partly.

There was something new to him in what Annabeth said, though. "Mortals...they also get sent down here?"

She nodded gravely. "Only the absolute worst. There haven't been that many, but the ones that do...well, they're pretty bad. There were more in ancient times, because the gods had extremely short fuses, what with them being young and all, but nowadays, there are less. Adolf Hitler, for example. And Bin Laden."

Percy nodded understandingly. Normally, he wouldn't have liked or even appreciated a Mythology lesson from Annabeth (or from anyone, for that matter), but in a life-or-death situation like the one they were in right now, he was beginning to learn their importance, why Annabeth insisted on them. And he was thinking things, too, about his past. If he had listened to Annabeth's lectures before quests and battles, could the outcomes have been different? Like, at Mount St. Helens, or...maybe if he'd talked to Annabeth instead of Rachel before the Princess Andromeda? Could he have saved Beckendorf?

He shook his head to dismiss the thought, emotions pooling at the back of his eyes, and Annabeth looked at him like he had three chests. "What?"

"Nothing," he said, though he knew she'd probably force it out of him later. "Go on."

"Well," she continued, "making up Tartarus is an infinite number of large caverns, like the one we're in. They go on forever, so probably the most important thing for us to do is to get our bearings and find the most direct way to the Doors of Death. I think Tartarus is supposed to be surrounded by bronze walls or something, which would mean the only exits would be the pit in the Underworld and the Doors themselves."

Percy nodded again. "So...the plan. First, we rest up. No going anywhere else today."

"That's reasonable," Annabeth agreed. Percy assumed her ankle was still hurting like Hades from the battle and the fall, and his upper body wasn't doing too much better. He'd had the wind knocked out of him, big time, and it was only just starting to recede.

"Second," he continued, "we somehow find a way to the Doors. But how..." he was almost afraid to ask as doubt started to seep into him, joining the fear that was already there, "...how would we do that?"

Annabeth thought for a second and then said slowly, "I've got a pretty good idea about that one...I have a feeling that the Doors would be where the monsters reform- where Gaea's army would be the strongest. We'll just have to find our way there."

Percy wasn't so sure if they could handle that many of the beings from hell- monsters were bad enough to deal with when they had dozens of healthy campers, let alone two injured ones (not to mention they'd have to fight the monsters in the area where the monsters were strongest and mortals were weakest), but he knew that failure was not an option. Somehow, they would do it. They would have to.

"Third," he said, "is to fight. And if we win, chances are, we're home free."

Annabeth nodded. "We also need some primary objectives." Before he could ask, she continued. "Things we need to do, like, right _now_."

Percy looked around uneasily. The wails and howls seemed to have increased in the time they'd spent talking. "Find someplace to sleep, some temporary shelter. Do the monsters...come out at night?"

She shrugged. "I've never been here, I wouldn't know. But it's probably better to be safe than sorry. Can you walk?"

Even before he tested himself out, he knew the answer.

He shook his head. "No...but-"

She stood up, dusting off her shorts. "I'll do it, then. It shouldn't be too hard."

"Wait," said Percy, "what are you doing?"

"This is a cavern, right?" she said, walking along the walls, "there should be small crevices or something in the- aha! That was easy!" She stepped back from the wall and grinned, and Percy could make out a crevice of some sort in the wall. Their temporary shelter.

With help from a couple more ambrosia squares, Percy was able to limp over to the crevice and crawl inside, though his back still hurt like Hades, as did his left leg, and he still couldn't take more than a shallow breath without a knife of pain slicing through his ribs.

The crevice, surprisingly, was more like a small cave of the size of the average classroom and a few heads higher than Percy was tall, they could move around comfortably inside it. It would definitely do for a resting place, probably for the next few days.

The finding of the shelter did nothing but raise their spirits, and in a hellish place such as the one they were in, they could certainly use a whole bunch of spirit-raising. And Percy guessed that, even in a place as dark and inhospitable as the one they were in, small things that keep people going, like will, luck, and hope, still existed.

They didn't have anything to use in the way of pillows or blankets, so they lay on the flattest section of floor they could find, hands intertwined, sharing Annabeth's backpack as a pillow, and it was at that moment that Percy realized how tired he was. That's what falling to Tartarus and taking the full force of the impact does to a guy, he guessed.

He turned over to look at Annabeth, not really knowing what to say. "So...assessing the situation," he said, remembering the survival course he and Annabeth had taken from Grover.

She nodded with approval. "We're in the deepest, darkest part of the Underworld."

Percy continued. "We're both injured, probably won't be back to full strength for a few more days."

"We've got to beat pretty much all the monsters in the world, by traveling through the depths of hell to a place who's location we aren't sure of yet."

"We don't know how much time has passed, or, for that matter, how much time we have."

"And if we fail, then the world as we know it will come to an end."

Hope looked bleak for a while as the two contemplated the predicament they were in. But then, Percy gave Annabeth a watery smile and held up their intertwined hands, gripping hers a little tighter in his and kissing it again, something he would never have had the guts to do three months ago. It was amazing, how a life or death situation in the most hellish place on earth could change a guy.

"But," he reminded her, "we've got each other. We're together."

Ignoring the cheesiness, Annabeth smiled back. "Together," she agreed, like she did when they were hanging over the pit in Arachnae's temple, and she didn't say what they were both thinking. How that, even though they were in a place just about as bad as it gets in the world, with bodies so injured even walking became a difficulty, with a task ahead of them they weren't sure could be completed even if they were at full strength- the fact that they were together kind of made up for it.

Almost a little bit unsure of himself, Percy leaned his head forwards slowly, and he could feel Annabeth still smiling against his lips when they met.

It was only a short kiss, and to the untrained observer, it may have remained just that. But to Percy and Annabeth, it was a whole lot more. It stood for security, will, inseparability, drive, determination...

And hope.

Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase were going to beat the odds or die succeeding.

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**Author's Notes: **I hope you liked that! I did my homework on how Tartarus works, so I assure you that everything you read from now will be accurate.

Reviews would be greatly appreciated.

**Edit:** As of July 16th, 2013.

**-epicsilverbullet**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes: **Thanks for all the great reviews I got on the last chapter, guys! TWELVE REVIEWS? I almost died of happiness!

**IMPORTANT!**

I'd like to say THANK YOU! to these people:

kooky656

Meepmeep123

WisestOwl

For stalking my stories and reviewing all of them! There are probably more people, and if I didn't get you, kudos to you, too, but these were all I could remember as of now, because I needed to get this chapter out quickly.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own PJO or HoO

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**Percy**

When Percy Jackson woke up the next morning, he recognized two seemingly impossible things at the same moment.

1) His back and chest hurt more than they did yesterday, the day of the fall, if that was even possible.

2) The reason for this was that Annabeth's arms were tightly wrapped around his body, and she was _crying_.

This immediately put him on new-boyfriend-alert, because he'd never really seen his girlfriend cry before. Ever. And he wasn't too sure of what he was supposed to do.

So, he just acted on an impulse, which had almost gotten him killed countless times in the past.

He put his arms around Annabeth, stroking her hair and kissing the top of her head. "It's okay," he murmured, though he didn't know what he was comforting her about, "it's okay..."

Unfortunately, this only caused her to hug him even tighter, and her body soon was wracking with sobs. Percy winced at the amount of pain it caused, hearing a soft cracking sound coming from the front of his chest. "A-Annabeth," he said, gritting his teeth, "could you..."

She sniffled and looked at him, eyes rimmed red with tears. "What?" Then she looked down at his stomach and quickly drew her arms back, fumbling around in her backpack for some ambrosia. "Oh, gods!" she said, stuffing it into his mouth. "I'm so sorry! I don't know what came over me!"

Percy swallowed, and, with some difficulty, managed to sit up against the stone wall of the cave, feeling more useless than he ever had in his life. "Thanks," he muttered, "and it's not problem, really. But what were you crying about?"

Annabeth sniffled again and didn't answer for a while, occupying herself by furiously wiping the tears from her face When she spoke, her voice was quieter and more fragile than Percy had ever heard it to be.

"Percy," she said, her voice shaky, "we're in _hell_."

In any other situation, a daughter of Athena saying something that stupidly obvious would have been comical to Percy, but he knew that, at that point, Annabeth needed comforting.

He nodded slowly, still stroking her hair to calm her down. "Yes," he said slowly, "we are. And we're going to get out."

She shook her head, nuzzling her body against his for protection. "No," she said, "we aren't! Nico is a son of Hades and even _he_ could barely get out! What chance do you think _we_ have?"

"A good one."

"Percy, even Jason freaking Voorhees didn't get out of hell!"

"How do you know about Jason Voorhees? And, by the way, he actually _did_ get out of-"

She whirled on him, fury in her eyes. "That's beside the point!" she hissed, and Percy backed away, wary of her death glare. That's what happens when guys try to calm down girls? If you asked Percy at that moment, he'd tell you that the whole relationship thing was overrated.

"This is the deadliest place on earth and we have no chance of-"

Percy shook his head, effectively cutting her off. He wasn't one for big, inspirational pep talks, but he felt that Annabeth needed one at the moment. "Listen," he said, "Tartarus isn't that different from the mortal world..."

At one look from Annabeth, he decided to change that.

"Okay, fine. Maybe it's _pretty_ freaking different from the mortal world. But that doesn't make it any more hostile!"

Another look from Annabeth.

He gave an exasperated sigh. "Okay, fine! We're in hell. But getting out is...is just another problem to solve, for you. You break up everything in life into separate problems, and this is just another one of them that you need to complete. And...and you will."

"How?" she challenged, "Percy, you and I both know that this is going to be extremely hard, if not completely impossible!"

"I thought that defeating Kronos was impossible," he countered, "but it happened!" She had nothing to say to that, so he continued, "nothing's impossible, Annabeth. But you won't know that until you try."

She didn't say anything for a while, and Percy hesitantly drew her closer. "You need to relax, and we aren't going anywhere today."

She laid her head in the crook of his neck, eating a square of ambrosia for her leg and giving him a couple squares for his back and chest. Percy thought about the plan for the next few days (something he would have laughed at two years ago, but having a daughter of the goddess of battle strategy as his girlfriend did wonders for his intellectual ability). They'd definitely have to rest up for the rest of the day, possibly head out the next day to where the monsters reformed, where the Doors of Death were.

Again, they didn't know how they could be so relaxed in...well, in _hell_, but they just were. Percy had Annabeth, and Annabeth had Percy, and that was enough, at least at the moment, for them to allow themselves the smallest bit of hope.

As long as they had each other, they could do this. They really could.

So wrapped up were they in resting that they didn't realize when the air dropped a few degrees and a shadow appeared on the wall opposite them.

When she noticed the monster in the "doorway" of their cave, Annabeth shrieked in surprise and pulled away from Percy's grasp, reaching for her knife, but she came up empty. Percy looked up, startled, and noticed the hellhound. "Oh, god!" He scrambled back and fumbled for his sword. Annabeth frantically searched her pockets for her weapon and cursed, seeing that her dagger was by her backpack and the laptop, over where they were sleeping.

Percy tried to get to his feet, ignoring the pain and uncapping Riptide, but then looked over at Annabeth, who was frozen in fear and was staring at the hellhound. He looked up at the beast's face, and, with a start, noted that this was no regular hellhound.

It's eyes were a glowing red, filled with malice, and Percy knew from experience that this monster's one goal in life was to kill everything in it's way. It was about three times bigger than the normal-sized hellhound, almost as big as Ms. O'Leary, and, to make matters worse, was followed by three other hellhounds. The pack of them made their way into the cave, growling and licking their lips as if anticipating a tasty demigod meal, which Percy wasn't too sure he could avoid becoming.

Then, out of absolutely nowhere, twin Stygian Ice blades appeared and sliced the lead monster in his back, and he crumbled into dust with a yelp of surprise. The dust blew off of the floor and out of their cave, and Percy's best guess was that it was heading to the part of Tartarus where the monsters reformed.

The twin blades of death whirled through the hellhounds like a demon, slashing and stabbing repeatedly until all four of the monsters were dead. When they all turned to dust, a figure appeared, shimmering out of invisibility, and Percy caught his breath.

It was a girl with caramel brown, shoulder-length hair, about his or Annabeth's age, maybe a tiny bit younger, and if Annabeth wasn't two feet away from him, he'd have called her pretty. Breathing hard, she sheathed both of her blades and produced a small drawstring pouch from her pocket, scooping up some of the monster dust and collecting it in the bag. The pouch seemed to strain in the general direction the other monster dust was going, as if it wanted to go to the monster reformation...place.

Percy and Annabeth just stared uncomprehendingly at the invisible girl turned visible standing in front of them. What other weird things could possibly happen to them?

Still panting, the girl extended her hand to Percy. "Nice to meet you," she introduced. "My name is Cratos."

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**Author's Notes:** Who exactly is Cratos? Is she hostile or peaceful?

I reject the reality of the myths and submit my own!

At first, I was considering putting Nico in Cratos's place, but since he isn't part of the prophecy of Seven, that won't work. I remembered hearing Cratos in one of the old Greek myths, so I did some more research, and- BAM! I got my character!

Everything you may be confused about regarding Cratos will be cleared up in the next chapter. Until then...you know what to do!

**Edit:** As of July 16th, 2013.

Reviews would be greatly appreciated!

**-epicsilverbullet**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Notes:** Umm. Hello.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own PJO or HoO

* * *

**Nico**

The Argo ll was unmanned. Leo had put it on autopilot, which was a new feature he'd installed after the parking lot incident, where they'd lost their two best fighters. He'd done that to take his mind of their disappearance.

It wasn't hard- he just pointed Festus's head towards the House of Hades and told him to fly. And it had its benefits. For instance, Leo could use his Wii remotes for what they were meant to be used for.

Coach Hedge was downstairs, watching "Way of the Dragon" ("It has Bruce Lee _and_ Chuck Norris!" he'd said, "you can't say no!"), and the rest of the crew on the monstrous Greek trireme were sitting around the rec room table in stony silence. The surge in optimism and determination they'd felt after exiting the parking lot had quickly died down, and the more realistic and spirit-crushing surge in pessimism took over.

They could say what they wanted to, but the bottom line was this: Percy and Annabeth were in Tartarus, and even with Nico's powers, he couldn't tell for sure if they were alive or not, because Tartarus was out of Hades's control. It was unsettling, to say the least.

Hazel broke the silence.

She shook her bangs out of her eyes and sighed. "I can't tell. If they're alive or not."

Nico nodded in agreement. "Me neither."

Jason shrugged. "That doesn't matter now."

Nico raised an eyebrow. "How does that not matter? The lives of our friends don't matter to you?"

"We can't let it drag us down," he insisted, "I can't say I don't feel terrible, because I do. But we owe it to them to make it to the temple. That's what they'd want us to do." He looked at Nico, being the one who'd known Percy and Annabeth for the longest. "Am I right?"

Nico stared at the son of Jupiter for a moment and then reluctantly nodded. "If we spend even an hour like this," he admitted, referencing their current state of mourning, "Annabeth would probably judo throw us all."

"I thought she said she only did that to Percy?"

"She lies," was his simple reply.

Piper, being one of the best strategists they had now that Annabeth was...gone, put her hands on a table. "We need a plan of action to get to the House of Hades."

Frank snorted. "No," he said sarcastically, "I wouldn't have guessed."

Hurt, Piper looked over to him. "This isn't the time to act like that!"

"Percy and Annabeth are in Tartarus," he said, as if they needed a reminder, "and you all are just moving on." He directed his gaze at Leo, who'd remained surprisingly quiet, Piper, and Jason. "You guys don't know them like the rest of us do! Like me, or Hazel, or Nico!"

"Well then what do you-"

"Stop it, you idiots!"

Leo stood up slamming his hands on the table. "Arguing amongst ourselves when we're supposed to be working together isn't going to accomplish anything!"

Frank and Piper sat down slowly at their respective seats, embarrassed. "Sorry," Frank muttered. Piper just nodded in reply.

Nico spoke up, arms crossed, leaning back in his chair. "First thing to do is tell Chiron and the rest of camp about the situation we're in and what we have to do," he said, "Chiron will want to know, and he'll be able to help us."

Jason nodded. "That's a good idea," he earnestly said, wanting to take the conversation down a more civilized and less fatal route. He pulled a drachma out of his pocket and tossed it out of one of the portholes, into a cloud that was conveniently passing by the ship. "O Iris-" as he remembered something he learned from Percy, he switched his chant, "I mean, O Fleecy, do me a solid! Show me Chiron, at Camp Half-Blood."

The rest of the passengers on board looked at him weirdly. "I'll explain later," he said, embarrassed, as the mist shimmered to form an image of their mentor in their beloved summer camp.

Or, as it was at the moment, war camp.

Gone was the arts and crafts building; in it's place was a larger weapons room to store the ones camp already had. The numerous swords, bows and arrows, and other weapons of mass destruction in the Ares and Athena cabins had been confiscated, and Nico could just make out some Hephaestus campers churning out more weapons from the forges. He thought he saw a couple more replicas of Clarisse's electric spear in there, too.

Gone were the people swimming in the lake, or relaxing on the beach, or doing any recreational activities at all. Nico didn't see anyone in the strawberry fields, and no one was playing volleyball at the volleyball courts. It seemed as if camp was already preparing for the Romans, though the demigods on the Argo ll didn't know how the others could possibly know about the Civil War. The one between the two forces who were _supposed_ to be working together.

The six of them took a moment to take all of the changes in, and then Nico saw Chiron, who was currently watching the Oracle at Camp Half-Blood shoot apples off of Connor and Travis Stolls' heads, probably as a punishment for doing something bad. It seemed as if camp was training all of its warriors in every aspect of battle, and archery was no different. A lot of people were bad at it.

_Percy would be practicing archery if he were at camp_, Nico thought, a smile daring to stretch across his face. A dark wave of sadness immediately washed over him, though, and he returned back to his brooding state. "Chiron!"

Chiron turned around and smiled at the demigods, looking genuinely contented but not at all surprised at the Iris-Message. "Nico!" he said, "Piper! Jason! Leo! My, it's good to see you alive!"

Nico smiled- a real smile, his first one since before he was imprisoned in Tartarus. "Good to see you, too, Chiron!" He turned to look at Frank and Hazel, who looked like they'd never seen an intelligent centaur before, which, he reasoned, they probably hadn't. "Hazel, Frank, this is Chiron. He's our mentor, sort of like Lupa from your camp."

He turned back to Chiron. "These are Frank Zhang, son of Mars, and Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto. They're the roman demigods that are part of the Prophecy of Seven."

Frank, Hazel and Chiron exchanged nods of greeting as Jason, still leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed, said, "Not to get down to the serious stuff too fast- but how do you guys know about the war?"

Chiron applauded Rachel as she shot off the apples on both of the twin's heads and then turned back to the Iris-Message. "Annabeth Iris-Messaged me when you were on the Argo ll, after the Romans attacked at Fort Sumter. She said that they were planning an attack on camp. But Percy was sleeping by her side at the time, and they looked too peaceful to be delivering bad news, so I told her that we'd worry about it." His face brightened up like a kid's on Christmas at the mention of his start students. "Come to think of it, where _are_ Percy and Annabeth?"

The demigods looked around at each other, not knowing what to say or how to say it. "Well..." began Piper after a while, "it's kind of a long story."

By that time, a crowd of demigods had gathered around the Iris message, including the Stoll brothers, who had apples with arrows sticking right through their centers superglued to their heads. But most had solemn expressions, wanting to know more about the two camp leaders. "We have time," said Chiron. "Tell us."

Hazel and Frank first told their story of the quest to restore the Fifth Cohort's honor and defeat the giant Alcyoneus, and Piper and Jason took it over from there, explaining about the Mark of Athena and the quest to Greece, with a few interjections from Leo and Nico. The camper's expressions got more grave as the story went on, and when Nico delivered the news about how Percy and Annabeth were stuck in Tartarus, shouts and cries of disbelief were heard amongst the crowd.

Chiron said nothing throughout the whole speech, and Nico noticed how good of a listener he was- never breaking eye contact, nodding at all the right times. Another thing that reminded him of Percy.

Before any of them had even told them about the "fighting from inside Tartarus" part, Chiron nodded. "I see. Percy and Annabeth will have to close the Doors of Death from inside Tartarus. Simple in theory, but in reality..."

Will Ssolace spoke up, looking more furious than he'd ever had in his entire life. "We have to help them!" he said, "they can't possible do all of that _alone_."

Chiron shook his head. "The quest is for the seven demigods and the seven demigods only," he said.

"But they _can't_-"

"Percy and Annabeth are two of the most powerful demigods I've ever known," he said, raising his voice over Will's, "if anyone can do it, they can, and meanwhile, we have our own problems to worry about. Namely, the Romans."

He turned back to the five demigods. "Thank you for telling me what you did," he said, "and I'll expect an Iris-Message every day from now on."

The demigods nodded and murmurs of "Yes, Chiron" filled the air as the old centaur slashed his hand through the mist, cutting off their connection to the six young demigods on the _Argo ll_.

Piper took a deep breath and looked around the table, not sure if some of them were ready to move on from their loss yet. "We need...we need a plan of action. What we're going to do and how we're going to do it, because that's what Annabeth is probably drumming into Percy's thick skull now, and that's what she'd want us to do, too."

She held her breath, knowing that the joke she'd made was pretty suggestive considering the situation they were in, but they all felt the tension ease at the moment, and Leo and Frank even managed to crack a smile.

Leo grinned and looked around at the others around the table. "So, _mis pollos_, what do you suggest our plan to be?"

Frank furrowed his brow. "_Me Poyo_? Is that some kind of caveman talk?"

Leo shook his head. "No, it's Spanish for- ah, you can figure it out yourselves, I'm not going to tell you."

"What's that supposed to-"

Ignoring him, Leo leaned forwards, his expression serious. "Seriously. What's our plan? What do we do?"

There was heavy silence as all eyes turned to Jason, who was looking a bit uncomfortable. "What?" he said, "I'm not the expert at this!"

"No," Nico agreed, "you aren't. Percy was, and so was Annabeth, but they're d-" he coughed "-missing in action. I'm not sure exactly how much of your quests you remember, or, for that matter, how much you even _have_, but it's all we've got to go on."

Still looking uncomfortable, he said slowly, "Well...I mean, we need to get to the House of Hades and close the portal from that side as fast as humanly possible...right?" He looked around at the other five. "Any ideas on how to do that?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," said Hazel, "the actual act of closing the portal. But for now, we need to just focus on getting there." She turned to Leo. "You set Festus in the direction we need to go, right?"

Leo nodded. "We're locked and loaded, figuratively speaking. Now, we just wait until we get to the temple."

Satisfied, Hazel sat back. No one said anything after that.

The tension in the air was so thick, you could have cut it with a knife, even if the six demigods didn't show it. Romans and Greeks never were meant to work together, and even with the world at stake and Athena's head poking out of the bottom of the ship (a sign of reconciliation, or, depending on how you want to think about it, a giant flag of truce), the instinct deep inside of them to loathe each other was still there, no matter what the rest of their body was telling them.

They didn't work together very well- they had a natural instinct _not_ to. Of course, because the fate of the world was at stake, they'd try to get along everyday; however, they knew the wouldn't be able to, at least, not with the one camper that _had_ been able to accomplish that feat...gone.

They'd pull through when the time came, though. They all knew the stakes._  
_

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I don't _really _like Leo as a character very much- to me, he seems like Rick Riordan needed to create a character to replace Percy because Percy wasn't in the Lost Hero, so he created Leo. Dry wit, sarcastic, great sense of humor, and has special powers. I don't like to write anyone the same way as I write Percy, so Leo's probably not going to be as fun-loving as he is in the books- sorry if it's OOC a tiny bit, but that's just my interpretation of him.

On a happier note, I got power back from Hurricane Sandy!

**Edit:** As of July 16th, 2013.

Reviews would be greatly appreciated!

**-epicsilverbullet**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Notes**: Thanks for the great reception, guys! I think this may be my most successful story- we're averaging a little more than ten reviews per chapter! That's absolutely amazing!

I mean, I just write this stuff- it's you guys that turn it into something special.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any part of Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Heroes of Olympus series. All characters, settings, and other attributes belong to Rick Riordan.

* * *

**Annabeth**

Cratos...Cratos...where had Annabeth heard that name before?

Cratos looked at the two of them for a second, wiping the monster dust off of her clothes, and then threw her arms up in the air. "Oh, come on!" she exclaimed. "Does no one know who I am?"

"Um..." said Percy with a blank look on his face, "yeah, that would be about right."

Annabeth could have slapped him right then and there- it was common practice _never_ to insult a god or a goddess unless you wanted a one-way trip to Tartarus. Seeing as they were already _there_, said immortal being would probably do even worse than that.

Cratos just sniffed indignantly. "Mortals," she muttered, "all the same. They do not care about the minor gods. It is always Zeus, or Artemis, or, gods forbid, Ares! Never-"

"Um...sorry to interrupt," said Percy, a little unsure of himself, "but what exactly _are_ you the god of?"

Annabeth held back a scream and a slap, so she just let out a high pitched grumble and sort of jerked her arm to the side and back, making herself look like a retarded seal.

However, Cratos's shoulders slumped, and she sighed. "It is okay, daughter of Athena. Such chastising attempts are not necessary. Barely anybody knows about me, so it is nice to hear someone ask who I am."

She then grinned and drew herself up to her full height, which was still an inch or two below Percy and about the same as Annabeth's height. "I," she said, "am Cratos, goddess of power, kidnapper of Prometheus!"

Realization dawned on Annabeth, and she gasped. "It was you!" she exclaimed. "You and your brother, Ba, giant of might, were the ones to escort Prometheus to the mountains where the eagles pecked out his liver! But...aren't you supposed to be a guy? I read in the myths you were a giant."

She shrugged. "You cannot believe everything you read. It is not always true."

Percy looked like he was trying to wrap his mind around everything that was happening. "But then...what is Ares for? And come to think of it, why are you even here?"

Annabeth wondered why she hadn't pondered over why Cratos was assisting them, either.

Cratos gave Percy a sly smirk and tossed her caramel brown hair over her shoulder. "Power and strength are two different things, son of Poseidon," she said, turning to Annabeth. "Wisdom, of course, is a form of power. No ruler has ever had power without being wise." She turned back to Percy. "As you may know, power applies to a lot of things. Strength and wisdom are examples. Another is thievery." Her smirk got bigger as she held up Annabeth's dagger. "And I'm quite good at it, if I do say so myself."

Annabeth looked down at her waist, and, sure enough, her dagger was out of it's sheath. She accepted it back from Cratos with a forced, "Thank you."

Cratos's expression got solemn, and she sighed. "As to why I am here, and why I am helping you...well, when Hercules freed Prometheus from the chains that bound him to the rock, _of course_ that pighead Zeus pretended not to know that his own son had done it. He couldn't very well punish Prometheus or the god Hephaestus, who made the ropes, so he moved another rung down the ladder. To my brother, Ba, and myself. He accused us of not binding him tightly enough, and sent us down to Tartarus as an eternal punishment."

Annabeth blinked. _This_ was how the gods treated their own kind? By sentencing them to eternity in the most torturous place on earth? It seemed kind of hardcore, even for a god like Zeus.

Cratos seemed to be reading her thoughts, because she shook her head. "Well," she said, "not exactly an _eternal_ punishment. The other gods, including the minor ones, saw fit that my brother and I deserved a chance to get out of Tartarus."

Percy, who'd remained silent for a while, said, "Why wouldn't they just bargain for your release?"

Cratos flipped her hair over her shoulder again. "They cannot argue against a decision made by Zeus. Anyways, they said that if I did a great deed to the gods, something that could possibly make up for me releasing Prometheus, then I would be released from my prison. Power would once again return to the world! The United States of America would not be ruled by rich fools with too much time on their hands, but by wise, and powerful people! All would be well!" She looked at the both of them. "And what can I do to help the gods? Help you defeat their great enemy at the time. So, here I am."

Percy shrugged. "Sounds good to me," he announced, "but what about your brother, Ba? Not to be rude or anything, but...shouldn't he be helping us, too? If he's your brother?"

Cratos shot him a stern look, and he fell silent, accepting the fact that Ba wasn't important and that Cratos was there merely to help.

Annabeth, on the other hand, wasn't so convinced. Why would Cratos hide them from learning about Ba unless there was something _to _hide? And plus, she knew from past experience that gods rarely showed up to help just because they wanted to. There was usually a catch, they usually wanted something more, even if they'd been imprisoned in Tartarus for five thousand years and just wanted to get out.

But what could it possibly be? Besides her boundary-pushing actions towards Percy, Cratos seemed innocent enough...

"Being down in this place since the First Titan War has allowed me to develop precise bearings of Tartarus, a mental map, if you will," she was saying, bringing Annabeth out of her thoughts and into reality.

Cratos held up the bag of monster dust. "Your earlier suspicions about Gaea's army being strongest where the monsters reform is correct," she said. "Notice how the dust seems to be straining in that direction, perfectly willing to pull the bag along with it. That points to the reformation area. That is where we will have to go."

"Like a compass," said Percy, seeming to get it, "a weird, jacked-up compass."

Annabeth cracked a smile. "Should we get a move on?"

Cratos shook her head. "You are both too injured as of now. Besides, I can only stay with you for a limited amount of time every day, around twelve hours."

"Why?" Annabeth asked.

Cratos looked down at her feet uncertainly. "Well," she muttered, "I mean- things happen, every night. To whoever gets sent down here..."

A cold wave of understanding washed over Annabeth. Cratos didn't need to finish. She'd spent half of the past five thousand years getting tortured, and it was just then that Annnabeth noticed the fading bruises on her face and the cuts on her forearms.

What horrible things had Cratos gone through for the past five thousand years?

Percy didn't seem to understand, but Cratos put on a bright smile and fished around in her left pocket, coming up with two vials. "Drink," she ordered, giving one to each of the two demigods, "it's a healing medicine, as that is another form of power. All of your injuries should be gone by the time I have to leave." She checked her modern-looking watch, which didn't really fit in with her whole image, as Annabeth downed the liquid, which tasted similar to nectar, while Percy did the same.

Immediately, Annabeth could feel the magic working on her ankle, sewing her bones back together and straightening them out. And by the pleasured look on Percy's face, the same thing was happening to him, too.

Cratos looked at them solemnly. "I- I have to go now," she said bitterly. She produced two watches from her seemingly endless left pocket and handed one to Percy and one to Annabeth. "We travel from eight in the morning to eight in the evening, when I have to go. Like all other watches, these can show you the time from different time zones, so you can use it to coordinate Iris-Messages with your friends aboard the Argo ll. I suggest you do that as soon as possible."

Annabeth nodded, trying to take in all of what had happened. "So...goodbye?"

Cratos managed a small smile. "Yes. Goodbye, Annabeth Chase." She turned to Percy. "And same to you, Perseus Jackson." And her image faded away until it was no more, and she was gone.

* * *

_Annabeth was in a dark place, dark in many more ways than one._

_It definitely seemed to be in Tartarus, but not anywhere near where she knew she was, sleeping in a crevice next to Seaweed Brain Jackson. No, this was in a deeper, darker, more evil part of Tartarus._

_All around her, she could see monsters. Hellhounds snarled and paced around each other. Telkhines practiced sparring. Dracenaes were working on throwing a new flaming spear. It seemed to be a dark, evil, dangerous, training area._

_And right in the center of it all was a woman, with a dress seemingly made of the earth itself. Her eyes were closed, and she moved sleepily, but Annabeth somehow got the feeling that she could see everything that was going on around her._

_A cowering figure of a man appeared in front of her and bowed down to the floor. "M-milady," he said nervously._

_The woman, who she now knew was Gaea, chuckled. "What is it, Ba?"_

_Annabeth, from wherever she was in that hellish place, gave a start. Ba? Cratos's brother? The goddess of power had avoided talking about her brother, but Annabeth had never expected him to be a general of Gaea._

_"The girl and the boy are here. And they are being helped by C- my sister."_

_Gaea stopped for a second and then shrugged. "It hardly matters. They will be easily eliminated. And as long as they are killed, there is nothing Cratos can do."_

_Ba's fists clenched at the mention of Cratos's name, but if Gaea could sense that, she didn't give any indication. "How can you be sure?" he protested, "the Son of Poseidon is the greatest warrior since Hercules, and the Daughter of Athena isn't too far behind. Together, and with a goddess..." he let the sentence trail off.  
_

_Gaea yawned. "Are you calling me or my forces weak, Ba?"_

_Ba shook his head. "N-no, milday. It's just- well, would it not be smart to take no chances?"_

_Gaea thought about this for a second and then, slowly, a smile stretched across her face. "What exactly are you suggesting? A little...distraction? For the boy, perhaps? To cause some, ah...discord among the group?"  
_

_Ba grinned evilly. "Precisely, milady."_

_He leaned in and whispered in Gaea's ear, and they both shot an evil smile towards Annabeth at the same exact time, causing her to scream in fear and, for some reason, pain, as they and the rest of their army advanced on her..._

* * *

Annabeth's eyes slowly opened. Sitting straight up in bed and screaming "NO!" only happened in the movies.

Blinking the sleep out of her eyes, she checked the glowing, illuminated numbers on her watch. 2:57. She'd only been asleep for five hours, though it felt a lot shorter.

She sighed and snuggled closer up to Percy's stomach. He was currently out like a light, and his hand was tightly wrapped around Annabeth's waist, which gave her a lot of comfort. However, witnessing the most powerful being on earth threaten her and her boyfriend had a way of gripping her mind.

What on heaven, earth, or hell could those two possibly be talking about? And what would happen to Percy?

It was while thinking about these pressing issues that her tired mind slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** How did you like that?

**Edit:** As of July 16th, 2013.

Reviews would be greatly appreciated!

**-epicsilverbullet**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Notes:** Thank you for all the great reviews, guys!

I know that probably a lot of you were mad about the whole "Cratos" thing. I'd initially made her a girl to cause some discord between Percy and Annabeth, but when I thought about how it would be, it was either too much like those awful Mary-Sue fics, or those equally awful high school stories. I changed her around to make her a character that Percy and Annabeth could confide in, and relate to.

Nico's getting dealt with in this chapter!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any part of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Heroes of Olympus series. All characters, settings, and other attributes belong to Rick Riordan.

* * *

**Jason**

The tall, wooden pole supporting the bird's nest- a lookout area high above the massive Greek trireme- gave way, and it slowly started to topple over.

Wide-eyed, Hazel looked up to its occupant. "Jump, Valdez, jump!"

Right as the pole was about to smash into the ship's Celestial Bronze reinforced railing and smash into a bunch of pieces, giving him a free, one-way trip down onto Rome, Leo leaped out of it, hurling a ball of fire at the hellhound that was making life hard for Frank, and grabbed onto the railing, scrambling over it and onto the ship.

"Piper, watch out!"

Piper whirled her head around- and just in time, too, because a dracenae spit a deadly ball of fire where her ponytail used to be.

Leo drew his sword. "I didn't know those things could do _that_!"

Nico summoned an army of the dead, fighting alongside them against a squad of Laistrygonian giants. "Yeah? Join the club!"

A bolt of lightning flashed down from the sky, frying half the monsters on the boat, but Jason's energy level had taken a hit, and, to add insult to injury, reinforcements were climbing on from over the side, seemingly out of thin air. "Dang it!" he cursed, leaning on his sword for support and gasping for breath, his face pale, "I wish we had Percy! He'd summon a whole freaking wave of water out of those clouds or something and wash them right- Hazel, behind you!"

He leaped down from the captain's wheelhouse, his golden coin returning to his pocket, and tackled Hazel to the ground as a flaming arrow shot out of a telkhines bow.

Nico's face hardened at the thought of Percy not being with them, and he summoned for more of the dead to come up, directing them towards the last of the monster army, following in their tracks. "How the Hades do they come out of nowhere?"

Piper was currently engaged in a knife fight with an empousa. "It's Gaea!" she yelled, disarming the vampire-like creature and stabbing it in the chest. "Because the monster reformation area is an integral part of her territory, it's practically second nature to-"

"English, please!" Nico shouted, whirling through the ranks of the monsters, "I don't speak French!"

Piper's face flushed red. "Gaea can control when, where, and how many monsters spawn at will!"

"Perfect," Leo muttered, blasting the monsters with fire from behind a few empty wooden crates while Frank did the same from overhead, "the royal pain already controls pretty much every aspect of life, we don't need her controlling the _afterlife__, _also-"

_BOOM!_

No one knew exactly what happened- the sky darkened, and the jagged shape of a lightning bolt could be seen slicing through the sky before it hit the boat, and they could only assume that it killed all the monsters, because when the haze that came with the clearing of the explosion, there were no monsters left.

Breathing hard, Piper made her way over from the aft of the ship to the main deck area, where Hazel was gingerly getting up and running to an unconscious Jason. Leo kicked the flaming crates into the sea and joined them, while Nico banished the dead and a huge dragon slowly morphed back into Frank Zhang, son of Mars.

Piper knelt at Jason's still, pale form, trembling slightly. "What-" she swallowed, "-what the heck happened?"

Nico crossed his arms and leaned against the railing, a grim expression on his face. "It happens to kids of the Big Three whenever they overuse their powers." And it was then that the rest of the demigods noticed that Nico's face was pale, and he'd broken out in a cold sweat.

Frank looked towards the son of Hades. "Like what happened to Percy? In the aquarium tank of Phorcys and Keto's museum?"

Nico gave him a cold stare. "You haven't seen _half_ of Percy's powers yet."

Frank chose not to comment.

"You guys!" Piper looked up at them angrily from her position, on her knees next to a still unconscious Jason. "Help me with this! We need to help Jason!"

Hazel, the best medic they had at the time, knelt by his side, looking over him for any bruises, burns, or other external injuries. After her search was done, she promptly stood up. "Nothing we can do, except maybe give him some ambrosia." She looked to Nico. "I've never seen a child of the Big Three exhaust their own powers before. Do you think Jason's strong enough to do much more of that?"

Piper glared at her. "Of _course_ he's strong enough," she said through gritted teeth.

Ignoring her, Nico said to Hazel, "If I were him, I wouldn't try much more of it for the next few days, and probably none of what he just did- at least until he gets strong enough."

And the group broke up, Frank and Hazel aiding Piper in carrying Jason to the cot in his bedroom. Leo went to man Festus and fix any minor breakages on the ship, while Nico retreated to his cabin.

* * *

_Jason Grace was floating through mist._

_That was the extent of his knowledge. He was sitting in the lotus position, except he was floating. He could have been two millimeters above the ground, he could have been ten billion miles above the ground. But he knew that he'd have to keep floating through the mist until whatever it was his dream wanted him to know was revealed._

_It was an odd feeling, and quite an odd thought, but he supposed all feelings and thoughts were odd the first time you experienced them, and he was one of those people who, in a way, was "conscious" while having a dream, and quite enjoyed the experience. So, he settled down and let his dream world take his wherever it wanted._

_Jason didn't hate the special type of dreams reserved only for demigods, like most other people did- on the contrary, he liked them, and knew how valuable they actually were. More often than not, they warned him of a great danger approaching, and the rest of the time, it told his subconsciousness what was going on, or sometimes even what was going to happen. He felt that a dream that could go anywhere in the world, dig up the past, and even predict the future was a good one to have._

_It seemed like his dream was trying to tell him something. As he floated through the mist, various images popped up and floated in front of his line of vision for long enough that he could process them, and then they faded, to be replaced by another image._

_The first image was of Apollo and Artemis conversing, and he could see from the background that they were in some forest somewhere. He recalled that Apollo was the god who had the least difference between his Roman and his Greek forms- even his name stayed the same. And Artemis, he'd heard, was the most Greek of all the Greek gods, along with Athena. _

_Apollo had an arrow notched in his bow, and he looked serious for once. "This isn't good," he was saying, "we can't lose Athena."_

_Artemis scowled at the ground. "I cannot change anything that has already happened."_

_"How many?"_

_Artemis scowled again. "Only Athena, so far, and she isn't even that far gone."_

_Apollo sighed. "This was never supposed to happen," he murmured, "the pantheons of the gods were never supposed to mix. When that happens, we get all dual-personality."_

_Artemis glared at him. "I know what happens!" she hissed, "it's happening right now!"_

_Almost mockingly, Apollo continued, "The gods have been able to exist both as Roman and as Greek for the past few thousand years. But the Giant War, and the mixture of the Romans and the Greeks...well, the gods have to either stay level-headed and calm about it, like me or you, or they..."_

_Artemis's glare got stronger. "Don't talk about Athena that way, brother, or any of the gods. If Athena doesn't regain control over herself..."_

_"She'll go insane?"_

_Artemis shook her head. "No, she'll just switch between her Roman and Greek forms randomly, until she can gain control."_

_Apollo sighed. "And if that happens at an inopportune time?"_

_"It won't."_

_"But if it does?"_

_She sighed and turned away from him. "We'll just have to be lucky."_

_"Tyche doesn't work for the Olympians at their will. You know that."_

_Artemis chose not to answer._

_As the mist shimmered and faded away, Jason gulped. What were the two gods talking about? Could it be that the gods, in their fit of schizophrenia, actually snap into a state of...not being able to decide? Did that even make sense?_

_The next scene came up, and with a jolt, he realized it was Percy and Annabeth, down in Tartarus, which was a wasteland a thousand times more desolate than he could have ever imagined. __They were both fast asleep, side-by-side in some sort of crevice, but that wasn't what drew in his attention._

_What drew in his attention were the two shadowy figures outside of their crevice._

_They were cloaked in darkness, and he knew they were both "residents of Tartarus", to put it in the nicest way possible. One of them, a man, said in an evil voice. "Now?"_

_The other one contemplated something for a second and then shook their head. "No," they said in a sleepy-sounding woman's voice, "let them go on for a while. Let them get their hopes up. And then one night, while Cratos is out, we take the boy."_

_The other guy's shoulders sagged. "But- we came all the way here!"_

_The woman, who Jason could only assume was Gaea, turned to the man. "Don't."_

_The man gulped and nodded as the figures left the crevice, leaving Percy and Annabeth untouched. "Y- yes, milady."_

_"The time is not right yet," Gaea continued sleepily, "it's the basics of psychological warfare, Ba. You should know this."_

_The disturbing scene changed again, to what Jason somehow knew would be the last "premonition" (or post-monition, because they already happened), of the dream. And within a few seconds, a view of camp was in front of him. Or, to be more specific, it was Chiron in his wheelchair form, sitting on the porch and looking out at camp, a brooding expression on his face._

_"The Romans..." he mumbled, looking out past the camp borders, "they are coming..."_

_Jason couldn't see any evidence of the Roman Camp approaching, but he _did_ know that Chiron had been running camp for thousands of years. And Chiron definitely knew what he was doing. His hunches were rarely, if ever, wrong._

_Rachel Dare, the Oracle, walked up to Chiron, holding an apple and a bow and arrow, which Chiron didn't seem to find out of the ordinary. "Chiron?"_

_Chiron looked up at her, as if noticing her for the first time. "Yes, Rachel?"_

_"I've been having visions," she said, glancing around to make sure no one was spying on them, and then, in a quieter voice, "one of the people on the ship is not supposed to be there."_

_Chiron face sagged, and he looked as if he were expecting this, and nodded. "Yes, I figured that out the last time we received an Iris-Message, and I was hoping that my hunch was wrong. I guess it was not. But I cannot possibly figure out who it could be, for the life of me. Do you have any idea?"_

_Rachel shrugged. "At first, I thought it was-" Then she stopped talking and stood there stiffly, not moving or talking._

_Chiron raised an eyebrow. "Rachel?"_

_Rachel opened her mouth to speak, but the voice that came out of her mouth wasn't hers._

_"Seven half-bloods shall answer the call, to storm or fire the world must fall, an oath to keep with a final breath, and foes bear arms to the Doors of Death."_

_Almost immediately, Rachel continued talking in her normal voice. "-Coach Hedge, because he technically isn't a half-blood, but since he isn't really fighting alongside them or helping them in battle, it isn't-"_

_It would have been comical to Jason, if the world wasn't in mortal danger._

_"Rachel," said Chiron._

_She stopped talking and stared at him for a second like he had three heads, then said, "Did I do it again?"_

_Chiron nodded. _

_"Rats. What did I say?"_

_The old centaur shrugged. "You simply repeated the new Great Prophecy."_

_Rachel's brow furrowed. "But what could it mean? I was just talking about how one of the people on the ship wasn't supposed to be there, which was the reason why they kept on getting attacked by monsters-"_

_If Chirons could have leaped out of his wheelchair at that moment, he would have. "Attacked by monsters? What do you mean?"_

_Rachel shrugged. "Ever since I had the thought about one person not belonging, I've had premonitions of their ship being attacked by monsters. I think it happened four times or something? Anyways, it's because of the one person who doesn't belong."_

_Chiron got a faraway look in his eyes, and then Jason knew that Chiron knew the answer. "Haven't you thought about it, Rachel? The demigod who doesn't belong is-"_

_And then the image faded, the mist around him started to recede, and he started to float down onto something that felt surprisingly like his bed..._

* * *

Jason was pretty darn sleepy. But more than that, his brain felt like mush, and he ached all over. _Note to self_, he thought,_ acquire capability before performing dangerous and possibly suicidal actions._

He lay on his bed for a while, doing nothing, before cracking an eye open, and then another one, blinking a few times to get used to the light.

He was on his bed, in his cabin, and the other five demigods were there, too, milling around and conversing with one another.

"-don't understand it," Leo was saying, "four monster attacks in less than a week? That's even more than we had when we were sailing over the Mediterranean, and we're still over Italy, which, last time I checked, is _not_ the Mediterranean!"

Hazel spoke up next. "It isn't just the monster attacks," she said thoughtfully, "they're specifically targeting our weak spots, the ones usually plugged up by Percy and Annabeth. Remember that whole three-pronged attack that came in right after we took off from Rome? If we had Annabeth, she would have predicted that before it even happened."

"And when we went over the actual Tiber, flying out of Rome," Piper continued, "and all those telkhines and serpents came out of the water to kill us? If Percy was there, they wouldn't have been a problem. But the real question is: _how_ are they targeting our weak spots?"

"And why?" Nico added.

Jason lifted his head. "It's because of you," he said, looking pointedly at Nico.

All the demigods, eyes wide, turned to Jason. "You're awake!" Piper shrieked, throwing her arms around his neck.

"All right, all right," Jason laughed, trying to push Piper off of him, though he was secretly blushing, "you're gonna crush me, Piper."

Piper slowly got off of him, for some reason interested in her shoes. "Um, yeah. Yeah."

Nico raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Jason looked around at everyone, becoming more sure of his theory with each passing moment. "It's because of him," he said, gesturing at Nico.

"How?"

Jason sat up in bed. "Well..." he mused, "how do I word this..."

And he proceeded to tell all of them about the dream he had- about what Artemis and Apollo were talking about, how the gods, in their schizophrenic state, could lose control over their dual personalities, like what happened to Athena. He told them the news of Percy and Annabeth, down in Tartarus, how something was going to happen to them and it wasn't going to be good, and about the mysterious character Ba. And, finally, of how the Romans were nearing Camp Half-Blood.

The rest of the demigods, to their credit, were silent throughout his explanation. And after he finished, they were still silent, until Hazel spoke up.

"As much as I hate to say this...Percy and Annabeth are pretty much on their own, at least until we both get to the Doors and we both start fighting. The gods are too busy dealing with their schizophrenia, and even if they weren't, none of them would go down into Tartarus."

Nico scowled and kicked Jason's bedpost. "Of course," he muttered, "because the lives of demigods are less important that the lives of immortal gods. Silly me."

Hazle continued, ignoring her brother. "And there isn't much we can do about Camp Half-Blood either. We can't go back there, because we've got a quest to complete. No, our biggest problem right now is the gods. We can't be expecting much help from them in closing the Doors, and we've always had to rely on their help in the past."

A thought struck Jason. "Actually..." he said slowly, "maybe we _can_... rely on help from the gods, I mean. Gaea was talking about how some god named Cratos was helping Percy and Annabeth. Anyone know who he or she is? And Ba, too?"

"Ba is the God of might. And Cratos is the God of power," was Frank's instantaneous reply, "I wouldn't worry that much about Ba, because it doesn't seem like he or she is strong enough, but I'd pay attention to Cratos. Power is stronger than might, and I don't know what he's doing down in Tartarus, or if it even _is_ a he, but it's always good to have power on your side, and Percy and Annabeth will need a lot of it in Tartarus."

"Still," said Nico, "that's all well and good, but it doesn't answer why all of this is because of me."

Realization hit Jason like a bolt of lightning. "Don't you see?" he said, "it was what Chiron and Rachel were talking about. One of the people on the ship doesn't belong, and then she recited the prophecy. It's you, Nico! You aren't part of the prophecy!"

The room was silent, and then Hazel crossed her arms. "We _need _Nico, she said, "it would be-"

Nico shook his head. "No, Jason's right," he said, "I've got to go."

Hazel whirled on him. "What? Why? When?"

Nico backed up. "Ahh...I've got to go. Because I'm attracting monsters. Now."

Hazel glared. "Now?"

He shrugged. "The longer I stay, the more monsters come here, the harder your quest is."

"But where will you go?" Piper inquired, seemingly accepting this newfound realization.

Nico grinned. "I can just shadow-travel back to camp and help them with the Civil War. Of course, I'll probably be passed out for a day or so because of the long distance, but it will help you guys and it will definitely help camp if I go."

He looked around the room and everyone nodded. "I guess...I guess Jason's right," Leo said, patting Nico on the shoulder. "You should go."

"...now?" Frank asked.

Nico shrugged. "Now is as good a time as ever."

There was an awkward silence for a while, before Frank clapped him on the shoulder. "Well, get going, you idiot, and hopefully we'll see you back in Camp in one piece!"

Then everyone rushed forwards to hug Nico or something like that. He wasn't the most socially gifted person on earth- children of Hades never really were- but he appreciated their words of encouragement.

When he stepped forwards to hug Hazel, however, Jason could have sworn he dropped something into the palm of her hand, and by the confused look on Hazel's face, she thought so, too. But then Nico whispered something in her ear, and she gave a slight nod, dropping whatever it was into her pocket.

Nico looked around at the group and nodded. "Well then. I guess...I guess I'll go. Now."

Jason gave a small wave. "See you, Nico. We'll Iris-Message."

Nico grinned as he began to fade away. "Have fun!"

And then he was gone.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I hope you guys liked how I "dealt with" Nico- I know some of you were expecting him to die, or something, which wasn't the case. I did it for a variety of reasons, though.

One was that he wasn't part of the Prophecy of Seven, so it was only right that he wouldn't help them with the quest. Another was that it just never felt right for me, when I read the Mark of Athena, to have Nico on the Argo ll with everyone else. Also, I did it for the purposes of my story, so that there would be someone in camp we could get information from. Like how Jason is aboard the Argo ll and how Percy is down in Tartarus.

**Edit:** As of July 16th, 2013.

Reviews would be greatly appreciated!

**-epicsilverbullet**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Notes:** Sorry for the long update time. I could tell you all about why I didn't update, but it would just sound like excuses, so I apologize again. Sorry.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own PJO or HoO

* * *

**Percy**

As soon as Percy opened his eyes, his body tensed up and he braced himself for the onslaught of pain that was sure to come from the fall.

He waited for a while. The pain never came.

He tentatively sat up, relaxing his body, and looked around him. Annabeth was nowhere to be seen, and neither was her dagger, Daedalus's laptop, or her dagger. This puzzled him, but what puzzled him more was the fact that he didn't seem to be in any sort of pain, anywhere.

_Cratos. _His brain suddenly recalled the healing serum she gave them.

_Huh. It worked. What are the odds?_

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and crawled out of the crevice. The look of Tartarus didn't seem to have changed from when it was "daytime", but what did he expect? Did he think there would be birds chirping as the sun slowly rose over a picturesque, harmonious, tranquil land?

No. Tartarus was a wasteland. A barren, desolate, hostile wasteland.

Annabeth was standing a short distance away from the cave, talking to Cratos. Percy checked the watch that Cratos had given him. **9****:31.** He raised his eyebrows. If his watch was truthful, he'd been sleeping for about thirty hours.

They certainly let him sleep in.

"-few days, at least," Cratos was saying when he got within hearing range. Annabeth nodded and turned around as Percy came upon them. She was wearing her backpack with Daedalus's laptop in it and her dagger was slung around her shoulder.

"Did I just sleep for-"

Annabeth nodded. "Yeah. We were actually placing bets on how long you'd be out."

Percy stared at her. "Well, when did you wake up?"

"Around noon," she answered, "or, at least, what would be noon. I was on Daedalus's laptop for four hours, no joke, trying to find something that could help us."

Percy refrained from asking her if she was successful, choosing instead to greet Cratos. "Hi."

Cratos smiled. "Perseus. How are you?"

"Fine, thanks to your serum. Any chance I can get the recipe?"

"Not unless you have a way of acquiring hellhound saliva and the blood of a Nemean lion."

Percy stopped short. "What?"

Cratos sighed. "I am just kidding. That is what mortals do, nowadays, right?" She shot a glance at Annabeth, who shrugged and nodded.

Cratos turned back to Percy. "It is made from nectar of the gods, among a few other ingredients available only to immortals. I have much more in my home on Olympus. And time goes by faster in Tartarus than on the normal earth. You slept for ten hours of elapsed time, not thirty."

Percy sighed. "Well, _that's_ a relief."

Cratos turned back to Annabeth. "As I was saying," she continued, "it will take a few days for us to get to the Doors. It will take your friends about the same time, even though they are in a warship and can travel much faster than we can on foot. Allow me to explain, and follow me."

She started to walk in what Percy assumed was the direction the monster dust was indicating, talking as she went. "Think of Tartarus as similar to the Labyrinth you were once in. And yes, I know about the Labyrinth quest. Everybody does."

"Everyone?" Annabeth inquired.

The goddess winked. "Hermes internet. Wonderful reception. You are covered on Tartarus, Ogygia, and even the bathroom."

Then she continued.

"As with the labyrinth, it exists as a second skin under the mortal world. Unlike the labyrinth, however, it isn't ever-changing. It remains constant and has remained constant throughout human history. It spans the length and breadth of the earth, but since it is so far deeper than the mortal world, one foot here is one hundred feet up there, where your friends are. Annabeth understands."

Annabeth nodded. "Picture the earth as a bowling ball and Tartarus as a golf ball. We're on the golf ball and everyone else is on the bowling ball, and the golf ball is inside the bowling ball, similar to how Tartarus is inside of the earth. If we walk all the way around the golf ball and someone else walks all the way around the bowling ball, it will take less time for us because the golf ball is smaller. But it's the same distance, the same circumference, either way. That means that one foot here would be a little more than a hundred feet up there, judging from the time of the fall." She looked to Cratos. "Am I right?"

The goddess nodded. "Contrary to popular belief, Tartarus is not infinite, much like the Labyrinth. You can walk around it forever, but it isn't infinite."

Percy thought he was starting to understand. "So..." he said, running a few primitive calculations through his mind, "does that mean that we can take our own sweet time getting to the Doors of Death? I mean, since we'll be traveling a hundred times faster than they are."

The goddess shook her head and quickened her pace. "Another similarity with the Labyrinth is that there are multiple entrances. I am sure you already know that."

Percy knew that. He knew it very well. Two days ago, he fell into one of those entrances.

"The entrance you fell into," she continued, "Was around one thousand miles from the House of Hades, thereabouts."

"Which means it's about one thousand miles from the Doors of Death," said Annabeth.

Cratos nodded. "Precisely. Assume your friends are going at two hundred miles an hour, which, believe me, is both extremely possible and not as fast as it seems to be. That means that they will get to the House in five days."

"And it means that we'll get there in, like, two months," said Percy.

Annabeth shook her head. "No, we should get there around the same time, because of the golf ball thing."

"Annabeth is right. Since one foot here is one hundred feet up there, we will actually be traveling at one hundred times our apparent speed."

Percy's head was starting to feel fuzzy. "I, uh...you know what, just keep talking. I'll get it."

"The average walking speed," the goddess continued, "is around two miles an hour, maybe a tiny bit more. If that is the case, we should be traveling at two hundred miles an hour, also, relative to what they're traveling."

"Because two times a hundred is two hundred," Percy said, catching on.

The goddess smiled. "Yes, Perseus. Which means that we just keep walking and we'll get there in five days. Time goes by thrice as fast down here, don't worry."

She then turned her gaze towards the bag full of monster dust, holding it up so they all could see it. "Notice how it's straining in one direction," she said, pointing in the general area the dust was indicating to. Percy followed her gaze and saw that the caverns closed in on each other, almost making the area they were in a giant circular room, except for a tiny path that cut through the cavern and lead to the other side.

"That's where we're going?" Percy inquired.

Cratos shrugged. "Probably not. But that _is_ the general direction, and we should head for that area. We would drive ourselves crazy by following the exact spot the dust was straining towards every second of our journey. It would be better just to keep a general landmark in sight and head towards that for a while. We'll check again once we get there."

Annabeth nodded as if it made sense to her. "Sounds great. Let's go."

* * *

There was no need to worry. When they got to the small opening, the pathway to the other side of the cavern, they noticed that the bag seemed to be straining right through the middle of it. Just to be sure, Cratos sent Percy to the other side of the cavern and let the bag drop to the ground. It bounced off the walls a lot but eventually made its way to the other side, where Percy was, confirming that that was where they had to go.

He caught it and delivered it to the goddess. "We better hold onto this. If it gets away, we'd have lost our compass."

Cratos shook her head. "You keep it. It's almost eight in the evening now, later than you think it is, and I have to...I have to go soon. Find a place here where you can stay the night." And just like that, she was gone.

Percy shook his head and turned to Annabeth. "I don't believe it. She just...went!"

But Annabeth was already looking for shelter. "Doesn't it _bother _you," she said, scouring the walls of the cavern, "that we haven't been attacked by any monsters since we came, except for those hellhounds?"

"I...I mean, we have Cratos with us. She's a goddess."

Annabeth looked at him. "Well, if she's a goddess, then why doesn't she just use her goddess powers and transport us right to the Doors so we can get this whole quest over and done with?" When Percy didn't answer, she continued. "Cratos isn't the one making the monsters stay away from us, and what's been bothering me is trying to figure out what _has_. Why are the monsters staying away? What's going on here?"

Percy had no answer for that.

She sighed and brushed her hair out of her eyes. Percy didn't have the guts to tell her not to. "The monsters won't attack us. I get the feeling that we'll be safe if we sleep just about anywhere."

"Don't take the chance. We're in Tartarus."

They found a niche, a little cubby of sorts that was tucked away in the walls of the pathway itself, and crawled into it. It wasn't as spacious or comfortable as the first one they found, but they could fit in it if they lay side-by-side.

Neither one was tired yet, though, so they found themselves talking late into the night.

"The monster thing is still bugging me."

Percy shrugged. "Maybe Gaea, or whoever is controlling them, is saving her energy for when we come to the Doors. It would make sense, I guess."

Annabeth shrugged back. "You're probably right. At least, that's the best theory we've come up with so far."

_We?_ Percy thought. But he didn't say anything.

"And I'm not so sure about Cratos," Annabeth continued. "She seems like she's hiding something. Why would she help us, anyways?"

Percy's brow furrowed. "Hiding something? What makes you think that?"

Annabeth propped herself up on her elbow and turned to face Percy, her hair falling in front of her face until she tossed it back. "Well, think about it. She disappears every night. She always seems like she's hiding something. Doesn't that strike you as odd?"

Percy shrugged. "No, not to me. And she's helping us because she wants to get out of here, same as you and I do. I think you're over thinking things again, Annabeth. Cratos is cool."

Annabeth huffed and turned over, effectively ending their conversation.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Ah, Annabeth. You were so wrapped up in your misinformed jealousy that you forgot to Iris-Message camp or the Argo ll, and now, everybody thinks you're dead...

Reviews would be greatly appreciated!

**Edit:** As of July 17th, 2013.

**-epicsilverbullet**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Notes:** Yikes! Sorry for not updating in a while. But I'm back, so lets go.

By the way, did anybody watch the movie "Pulp Fiction"? I just finished watching it recently, and I have to say, it was fantastic.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own PJO or HOO

* * *

**Nico**

"-out for a few days."

"Hmm. Do we still not know where he traveled from, or why?"

"I have no clue. But don't you think it's convenient that right at the moment I said, 'The person who doesn't belong on the Argo ll is Nico', the guy pops up out of nowhere? A coincidence?"

"Rachel, my dear, the universe works in mysterious ways. I don't pretend to understand it, and you should accept that fact, too."

Nico sighed and cracked his eyes open. "Hey, guys."

Chiron and Rachel snapped to attention. "He's awake," she breathed.

"No," said Nico, "I'm dead. What you're seeing now are just the involuntary spasms that occur just prior to my physical death." He sat up in bed and stretched out his tired arms. Some of his bones cracked deliciously.

Chiron, in centaur form, plodded over to his bedside table. "Welcome back, my boy!"

Nico rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "So. What did I miss?"

Rachel and Chiron exchanged glances. "Nothing," said the centaur. "I'm assuming you heard what Miss Dare and I were saying earlier?"

Nico nodded. "Yeah. I can answer all your questions." He looked to Chiron for approval to continue.

The old centaur nodded. "Go on."

Nico told them about the two separate groups of demigods, one on the Argo ll, and the other in Tartarus. He stressed the importance of everyone at camp being completely isolated from those seven demigods, because that was what the prophecy stated and that was what had to happen, using all of the monster attacks as examples of what could happen if the prophecy wasn't followed, word for word.

He also told them about Jason's dream, how he saw into the future and realized what had to happen.

"Which is why I'm here," Nico finished. "They kinda kicked me out, but I saw what I had to do. Did I make a fashionable entrance?"

"Yeah," Rachel replied sarcastically, leaning against the door frame, "right on top of me."

"Elegant as usual," said Nico, hiding the embarrassment.

He swung his legs out of bed and firmly planted them on the ground. It would take a while before all his normal bearings and senses returned. "Do you think you guys could show me around camp so I can see what you're doing to prepare for the Romans?"

"But of course," said Chiron. He beckoned for Rachel to follow him, and an Oracle, a child of Death, and a centaur stepped out onto the porch of the Big House, squinting into the afternoon sun.

They first walked towards the recreational area- the volleyball and basketball courts, the climbing wall, the strawberry fields, and everything else in camp that wasn't directly related to training. "This has become our main supplier and storehouse for weapons," Chiron was saying. "In addition to the main forges-" he pointed to them "-the Hephaestus campers have fashioned another one where the volleyball courts were, along with a warehouse on the basketball courts. This way, we get twice as many weapons than we originally could, and they're all custom-made, to give us the upper hand over the Romans' standardized swords."

Nico nodded and they walked over to the climbing wall. "This remains true to it's original function. We use it for strength and agility training- that may not seem like its best use, but molten lava rushing one has a large effect on that person's performance."

Nico smiled as they walked over to the mess hall. "By the way," said Rachel, "were you able to get in touch with Percy and Annabeth at all?"

Nico's smile faded. "Not yet," he said gruffly, "but I'm pretty sure they're alive, and if they are, we'll find a way."

"Pretty sure?"

"That's what I said."

"How sure is pretty sure?"

"I'm pretty sure, okay? They'll make it." Nico was too used to Jason and Piper's "small talk" questions about Percy and Annabeth, questions that showed how they weren't too concerned about the fates of the two young demigods, but were just making, hence the name, small talk. He had to remind himself that there were other people who cared about them as much as he did.

Rachel sighed. "The mess hall is the same, except you can sit wherever you want. I guess we're spending too much time training for the Romans to care about where we sit. The gods are still silent, but some sporadically pop up in schizophrenic states. The pantheons of the gods were never supposed to find each other, never supposed to mix, but now that they have, I guess they're having a tough time dealing with it."

Nico nodded as they walked past the mess hall and down towards the beach, where the arena was and where most of the training was being done. "I mean," he said, "Ares seemed fine when he came to the Roman camp, but that was when he was Mars and it was a while ago. I doubt most of them are like that."

"The good news is," Rachel continued, "that no god help for _us_ means no god help for the _Romans_. It's a level playing field."

Nico looked at Chiron. "But at the same time, don't you think that there shouldn't even _be_ a playing field? I mean, don't you think that all of this-" he gestured out at the tons of demigods hacking swords at each other and throwing spears and firing arrows at targets "-should be in preparation for the Giants and Gaea? Not for the Romans, who are supposed to be our friends, our allies in the war?"

Chiron sighed heavily. "This has happened before, my boy, this has all happened before. If there is one thing I have learned, it is that what is done is done, and you cannot change the past. The Romans are attacking us, so we defend ourselves, that is just how it is. If that is what we have to do to get them to cooperate with us, then so be it. I do not like it. But it is the only option we have."

Chiron and Rachel showed Nico the rest of camp, which was basically just a large training area for the various campers. The beach was left untouched, the one oasis in the desert of war preparation.

None of the campers seemed the least bit surprised to see him. A few even nodded or smiled or said hello. He supposed Chiron and Rachel had already informed them of his sudden appearance, and they'd gotten over their initial shock.

After the tour of the new Camp Half-Blood, the three of them stood on top of Half-Blood Hill, watching the training unfold. "I have a few ideas," said Nico. "I still don't want to fight the Romans. Is there any way we can get up some sort of magical barrier around the camp? Sort of like the one that stops monsters from getting in, except this one would prevent anything from getting in?"

Chiron thought for a second. "It would be difficult," he mused, "but possible. A barrier from the outside world, that is an interesting concept. But I doubt it could be kept up for long, maybe only a few days. Why?"

"If we can get the Romans in a non-hostile position, where they are not able to kill us, then we can talk to them. I know for a _fact_ that Annabeth can convince them to stand down. We just need the opportunity."

Rachel sucked in a breath. "It will be a tight window. Remember, Annabeth is currently in Tartarus. They've got to close the Doors of Death and then immediately come back here for another potential war, quick enough that we have enough time to set up the barrier and prepare, for at least a few days, for the Romans. It might be too difficult."

Nico shook his head. "Not for Annabeth and Percy. I can navigate them through Tartarus, help them through it. It's not that bad unless you get to the monster reformation area, which I'm pretty sure they'll have to do."

"There you go with being pretty sure again."

"But they'll have help from five other demigods. They can do it. I'm just worried that we're focusing all our resources and energy on fighting against the Romans instead of Gaea, which is why we need the barrier idea to work. If we can do it, we'll fight one less war and be that much stronger when we have to face the Giants."

It was one of the longest speeches Nico had ever said, and he was quite surprised when he finished and neither centaur nor Oracle looked at him funnily. It crossed his mind that he'd been pretty quiet for the past few years, and most people probably talked like that.

Rachel shrugged after a moment of contemplation. "It's the best idea we have up until now. I don't really see many other options, and all of the other ones I _do_ see involve us fighting the Romans, which I don't want to have to do." She looked at Chiron. "What do you think?"

Chiron stared at Nico. "I think," he said slowly, after a while, "that it is a risky plan with terrible odds, but all we have had to go on in the past were risky plans with terrible odds, and those came out well enough." He looked out at camp. "We don't have any other choices, at least not as far as I'm concerned. Nico, go down to the Hecate cabin and see if they can help us. If they can't, and worst comes to worst, the Hephaestus cabin can fashion a glass dome, similar to the one in _The Simpson's Movie_." He cracked a smile.

Rachel looked at him like he had six heads. "How do _you_ know about The Simpsons?"

Chiron laughed. "I've been alive for three thousand years, Rachel. And _everybody_ knows about The Simpsons."

* * *

Nico tentatively knocked on the door of the Hecate cabin. He didn't really know that much about what kinds of magic the Hecate campers were capable of, but the cabin itself was made of highly explosive and fatal materials, so he wasn't going to take any chances with its inhabitants.

The door was opened by a girl about his height, maybe a little shorter, with messy black hair tied back into a messy ponytail. The cabin itself was messy, too, but other than that, it looked like a regular cabin. "Hi," she said, "what's up?"

"Can I speak to the cabin leader?" Nico asked.

"You're looking right at her," she said, "can I help you?"

"I'll get right to the point," he said, "can you and your half-siblings construct a magical barrier around camp, like the one keeping monsters out, except it works for everything?"

She stared at him. "You're kidding, right?"

"No! Fighting the Romans is exactly the _opposite_ of what we want to do, and if we have that barrier, no one gets hurt and we can talk it out peacefully."

She leaned against the door frame. "Uh-huh," she said, "and you think the Romans will just talk it out peacefully? Tell me, when has that strategy ever worked out for you in the past?"

Nico sighed. "Never. It'll work out now, but only if you can do it."

"Well..." the girl thought for a second. "I've been doing that kind of thing, to an extent, for my own personal security. Try to touch me."

Nico stared at her. "What?"

"Touch me," she said, as if, to a teenage boy, such a thing wasn't awkward at all.

After a short, internal debate over _where_ exactly to touch her, Nico tentatively reached a finger towards her arm.

Immediately, a burst of electricity sparked and the current zapped his finger. The shock traveled all the way up his arm.

He quickly drew his hand back and winced, shaking his arm in pain. "Ow!"

She grinned. "You want us to make something of that sort?"

He nodded, nursing his hand. "Yeah. Is it impenetrable?"

"To all mortals. Since we can't expect any help from the gods, that shouldn't be a problem."

Nico remembered Hannibal the elephant and the terrifying eagles that the Romans housed.

"Does it work on animals, too?"

The girl nodded. "As long as they're mortal. Though Peleus will live long, he is still mortal, so he won't be a problem, either."

"But if someone is ultra-resistant to pain, won't they be able to pass through the border?"

The girl shook her head. "They'll be fried to a crisp by the electric surge. But I have to warn you that, even with our combined power, we can only keep it running for two or three days."

Nico nodded. "That should be long enough to at least talk it out. Thanks for your help, I'll update you when I get more information." He'd stopped paying attention at that point, saddened by the thought that if Percy, Annabeth, and the rest of the people in the _Argo ll_ didn't arrive in time, they'd be blocked out of camp and left at the mercy of the Romans.

He ran into Rachel on the way back to his cabin. "What did they say?" she asked.

"They can do it," Nico confirmed, "for three days, max. That should be enough, don't you think?"

Rachel nodded. "It should be more than enough for Annabeth."

"No one should have to ever be where they are," he said, "ever."

Chiron clopped over to them. "I have some friends over in Europe. They disclosed the location of the Roman army. Seems like they're headed straight for our camp. Fifteen days was the estimate for how long it will take them to get to us from Rome."

"And from the Doors?"

"I spoke to Leo, also," said Chiron, he said that they were five days away from the Doors. If they headed for Camp right now, it would take them five days to get here. But ten days, to get to the Doors and back, assuming all goes well, and then another five days..." he trailed off.

"They'll get here at the same time as the Romans." Rachel sucked in a breath. "This could be bad."

Chiron sighed. "We will have to see. It is up to the Fates to decide, I suppose." He walked off to oversee some of the training.

Rachel looked over at Nico, who had fallen silent. "Nothing we can do about that," she said, "controlling the Fates. We'll try to Iris-Message them, but..." she trailed off.

Nico looked at her and inwardly groaned. He hated to see girls cry. He tentatively stretched out his arms. "Don't laugh at me, Dare."

Rachel's eyes watered and she stepped forwards, enveloping Nico in her embrace. It felt nice for him, to comfort someone who wasn't his sister.

A few tears slipped out of her eyes and onto Nico's shirt. He didn't complain. They didn't talk.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Hope you enjoyed that. The main reason I sent Nico to camp was so that I'd have eyes in camp to see what was going on. Not because Rachel is in camp. Nothing from the PJO series implied that Nico had a romantic interest in anyone, after all. Rachel's just a good friend for Nico to have.

**Edit:** As of July 17th, 2013.

Reviews would be greatly appreciated!

**-epicsilverbullet**


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Notes:** I've been really terrible with updating all of my stories, and I dearly apologize. I'm really trying to work on that- it's just that I've been getting distracted with writing some chapters of a story I'm planning to publish after all of my other ones are done, and I've been working a lot on some fictionpress stuff.

I'll now settle into a steady rhythm of events- one chapter at camp, one on the _Argo ll_, and one in Tartarus, then back to camp, back to the _Argo ll_, back to Tartarus, and so on and so forth.

**********Disclaimer: **I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Heroes of Olympus series. All characters, settings, and other attributes belong to Rick Riordan.

* * *

**Jason**

Jason had been waiting at the doorway to Hazel's room for a few minutes when it opened.

It's occupant was in mid-yawn, but that yawn turned into a shriek of surprise when she noticed the Roman warrior outside her room. She toppled backwards and landed on her bed.

"Whoa! Jesus- whoa!"

"Hi, Hazel."

"You scared the crap out of me!"

"It's a natural talent I seem to have," said Jason. He shut the door and sat next to her on her bed. "I have a few questions to ask you. A few things to clear up."

Hazel looked at him for a second, getting over her initial shock. "Fire away." She seemed up for it, like she didn't have anything to hide.

Jason knew better. Or at least, he had a hunch that he knew better.

"First off," he started, "what was that thing that Nico gave you before he left?"

"What thing?" Hazel was on the defensive.

"You know _exactly_ "what thing" I'm talking about."_  
_

Hazel looked like she didn't want to tell him, but tentatively pulled something out of her back pocket. It was a gold medallion, and inscribed on it was the symbol of Hades, the three-headed dog. "It has the power to open or shut the Doors of Death," she said. "The Giants took it from Nico when they imprisoned him and Percy got it back when he fought them. It's what Gaea used to open them, and it's what we'll have to use to close them."

She looked a lot better once she'd gotten all of that out. "What else did you want to ask me?"

Jason stood up. "Nothing. I only pretended I had more to ask you because I knew it would make you automatically assume that I'd save the harder questions for later, making you want to be truthful on the first question so I'd believe the lies you would tell me on the later questions."

He paused for a second.

"It's called _manipulation._"

"You dirty, rotten, piece of-"

"Why don't you tell everyone what Nico gave you and what you're going to have to do? I'm sure they'd like to know, too." And with that, he walked out of her cabin, leaving her to think about how many other first impressions she'd got wrong.

* * *

Life on the _Argo ll_ had become quite routine since Nico left, which admittedly was only one day prior, but was already feeling monotonous. Wake up. Eat food. Do nothing. Maybe talk. Eat more food. Get some sleep, if you're lucky. Socialize if possible before dinner. Eat dinner. Sleep.

REPEAT FIFTY MILLION BAZILLION TIMES.

Leo had told them at dinner the previous night that it would only be another five days to get to Tartarus, but Jason was still worried- not about themselves, they had a flying fortress- but about Percy and Annabeth. Whether they'd get there in time. If they would even get there. What was happening to them down there.

Routine was about to be broken at breakfast, though it rarely ever was.

Hazel stood up to get everyone's attention and broke the stony silence by clearing her throat. "So, um..."

Jason felt kind of bad about putting her on the spot like that, so he spoke up. "Hazel has something she'd like to tell us."

Hazel glanced at him and then took a deep breath. "When Nico left yesterday, he explained to me that only children of Hades- or Pluto- could close the Doors of Death. He gave me a method to do so-" she held up the medallion- "and told me I'd know how to use it when the time came."

A short silence followed.

Leo shrugged. "Sounds good to me." The rest of the group followed suit and murmured assent.

Something crossed Jason's mind. "Let me ask you guys something," he said as Hazel sat down. The demigods' eyes turned to him. "How well do we actually know Percy and Annabeth?"

This time, the silence was tension-filled.

"What are you saying?" Frank asked.

Jason shook his head. "I'm not trying to say anything. Let me ask you something else: have any of you guys ever actually gone on a quest with either of them?"

Piper nodded. "When we had to find the Mark of Athena."

Jason shook his head. "A _proper_ quest."

"And that wasn't a proper quest?"

"It wasn't a quest as much as it was a journey," Jason replied, "a journey we're still on, a journey to the Doors of Death. What I'm saying is- can we trust their abilities?"

Leo looked at him like he had three heads. "Of course we can! Didn't you hear what Nico had to say about them? And what everyone in camp said?"

"Look," said Jason, "I have a hard time believing in anything unless I see it for myself. None of us have ever accompanied them on a quest before, so-"

"That's awful!" said Hazel. "You can't just cast aside any possibility of them helping us just because you've never actually witnessed it!"

"Let me finish- I think we might be flying blind here." He let that sink in. "Think about it. We have a connection with camp through Iris-Message, but how much can they actually help us from there? And besides, they have their own war to fight- the wrong war, might I add. And we haven't even been able to contact Percy and Annabeth, we don't know if they're even _alive_. So I think our whole outlook on this has to change. We can't be expecting any kind of help from anyone, and this awful moping around all day has to stop." He finished the improvised speech feeling quite proud of himself.

Piper, on the other hand, couldn't say the same thing. Jason ducked as a plate sailed past his head.

"You ignorant jerk!" she retorted, "at points like this, connections to people we care about are the only things we have! And what else are we supposed to do for the next five days?"

"Train," Jason replied coolly, "how else do you expect we're going to win?"

"Listen," said Frank. He put his hands on the table. He wore a serious expression. "What _you-" _he looked at Jason "- are doing is causing us unnecessary stress. This is what happens: we go to the Doors. We fight. We win. We get Percy and Annabeth out of there. Hazel closes the Doors. We fly back to camp. We beat the Romans, or preferably, we talk it out without a fight. We become friends. We fight Gaea. We win."

Jason shook his head. "I'm not trying to cause unnecessary stress," he argued, "I'm just...reinforcing the facts."

"Well, you can stop reinforcing the facts! They don't need to be reinforced-"

"Cool it," said Leo, standing up from this table. "I'm going to solve all of this once and for all." He walked over to where Jason was sitting and punched him, hard in the shoulder. "Sit down and shut up! Arguing is the last thing we need right now." He then torched his glass of water, causing steam to rise up in the air, and tossed a golden drachma through the mist. "O Iris, show me Annabeth and Percy!"

The mist shimmered, and amazingly, the ripples cleared to form an image of Percy and Annabeth in a bleak, desolate cavern.

Leo stepped back in shock, as if he didn't expect that to work. "Wow!" he looked at his hands, which were still smoldering from the fireball. "I _am_ Iron Man!"

Annabeth looked as surprised to see them as they did to see her. She shook Percy a few times, who was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes, and pointed excitedly towards the Iris-Message. "Percy! Look!"

Percy blinked and frowned at the Iris-Message. "Oh. It's them. Hey, guys."

It took a little while for Annabeth to explain to Percy (who was still half asleep, as most people are when they wake up) the circumstances they were in, but once he understood, he woke up fast.

"And _how_ exactly did the Iris-Message work this time when it didn't work all the other times before?" Percy inquired.

Leo held his head up. "It was because- and I'm _just saying_- it was because I _believed_. I believed, man, and it happened!"

Jason sighed. "Whatever you say, Leo." He turned to the Iris-Message. "I can't believe we forgot to ask- how are you guys? What's it like down there?"

Percy's expression grew solemn. "We don't really know," he answered. "It seems to be like any other cave you'd find on earth, but then this male god who is actually this hot girl comes and says she has a brother who's evil, and monsters can be compasses, and I'm standing on a bowling ball- wait, was it a golf ball?- well, one of us is standing on...on something, and-"

"Start at the beginning," Hazel said, exasperated.

So Annabeth did.

She recounted the history of what had happened to them- the fall, which was quite brutal, and the appearance of the goddess Cratos, who had promised to help them on their quest. In exchange, she wanted nothing from the young demigods, but hoped to receive freedom from her prison from Zeus.

Leo's eyes were bugging out at the end. "Wow," he said, "that's kinda...kinda a lot to take in."

Frank nodded. "Surviving the fall was pretty lucky," he added, "and finding someone like Cratos to help you was nothing short of miraculous. How long do you think it'll take you to reach the Doors?"

"Five days," Annabeth answered, "because time goes faster here and because we travel super fast because of the golf ball thing."

Frank nodded and turned to Leo. "Five days. That works out perfectly for us, right?"

"Yeah. We'll get there about the same time."

"Cool." Percy turned to Jason. "You guys have to keep messaging us, because Cratos gave us some coins but they don't work down here."

Endings to Iris-Messages were already awkward, made even more in this particular occasion because of the fact that the two people on the receiving end of the message were, you know...in the land of the dead.

For better or for worse, though (probably for worse), the Iris-Message was ended in a rather unconventional way.

A monster leaped through the screen and barreled through the entrance to the nook that the two young demigods were in.

Percy yelped and flattened himself to the side of the hole in the wall as Annabeth dove out of the hole itself. One of her flailing arms caught the edge of the message and it disappeared in a hail of swirling mist. The last visible thing was the monster, which looked like nothing they'd ever seen, whirling around for a second charge, focusing itself on the helpless Annabeth, lying on the ground.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Again, I'm sorry for being terrible at updating this whole while.

**Edit:** As of July 17th, 2013.

Reviews would be greatly appreciated!

**-epicsilverbullet**


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Notes:** In my younger, more amateur days, I would have teased you guys about the "cliffie" I left at the end of the last chapter, subsequently making thousands of my readers (there have been 18,000 views on this story, by the way. Thanks!). And then, upon rereading the last chapter, I would have shot myself.

Thankfully, though, none of those things have happened (yet), so you guys get another chapter and I get to write. Yay!

I got an earlier review asking me if it was "legal" to write this fanfic and if I would "get in trouble for doing it". My answer to that is, yes, of course it's legal. I'm not Rick Riordan, these aren't the actual chapters of the book (at least, not that I know of), so it's perfectly legal.

By the way, if any of you are wondering about if I'm going to update _The Gods Must be Crazy__, _I am. It's just going to take awhile.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own PJO

* * *

**Annabeth**

The beast snarled at Annabeth, who was laying on the ground, vulnerable and helpless. It was definitely nothing she'd ever seen before- it looked kind of like the Minotaur, with it's bull's horns and glowing red eyes, but it ran on all fours and its lower body looked something like that of a lion. Her second thought was that it was Dr. Thorn, the manticore, but this thing didn't talk or have anything in common with him. No, this was something else. Something much, much, _much_ worse.

Percy unsheathed his sword as the monster leaped at Annabeth. She deftly rolled to the side as far and as fast as she could, and it landed on the ground. Unfortunately, this just seemed to make it more mad.

Annabeth scrambled to her feet as Percy jumped out of the niche in the wall. The monster was stuck in between the two of them.

"What the heck is this thing?" Percy shouted across to her.

"How should I know?" she yelled back. "Just try to keep it away from Daedalus's laptop- it has information that can help us! If we lose it, we're goners!"

Meanwhile, the monster had been looking back and forth between the both of them, trying to decide which one he should attack first. Ultimately, he seemed to have concluded that Percy was the bigger threat, so he barreled towards the young demigod in a fit of rage. Annabeth stood helplessly and watched. Her twin blades were in the niche, but the monster was blocking her way. Maybe...

Percy easily sidestepped the beast and drove his sword into its shoulder. It bellowed with rage and started to disintegrate, but ripped the sword out of its back and crushed it with its bare hands. "Wow," said Percy, slowly backing up, "wow, that- that was unexpected." The thing roared in his face. "Oh, okay, so now I've made it mad." He hesitated for a second...and then took off, the beast on his heels.

This was Annabeth's chance. The monster's back was turned as he was focusing on Percy. She sprinted towards the niche in the cave as fast as she could, pummeling her fist into it's fur as she went past to take its attention off of Percy. Unfortunately, it worked. "Run, Percy, run!"

The monster turned around and started to chase _her_. The niche and her knives weren't that far away, but the monster was unbelievably fast. Behind them both, she heard Percy take his sword out (Riptide appeared in his pocket every time after he lost it), but he was too far back. It was just her and the... the whatever that was.

She dove into the niche, arms outstretched, reaching for the knife that was closest to her. She'd unfortunately mistimed her jump, though, sending her sailing over both the knives and slamming against the back wall of the niche.

The beast, however, had also jumped with too much power and speed. The entrance to the niche wasn't that big, and it had jumped way too high, slamming head-on into the stone wall of one of the huge caverns that made up Tartarus. He crashed to the floor with a whimper.

_That must have hurt_, thought Annabeth._  
_

As she scrambled back towards the front of the cave to grab her knife, the monster leaped into the cave, slamming (as Annabeth previously did) into the back wall, and effectively switching positions with her.

Annabeth dove for her knife and wrapped her hand tightly around the handle. As the monster roared with anger and sprang off the wall towards her, she whirled around, arm outstretched, and slashed the beast across the bottom of the chest. She ducked and rolled towards the back of the niche as it sailed over her and collapsed on the ground outside the cave, bellowing not in rage, but in pain.

It started to disintegrate into monster dust, but almost immediately reformed. Annabeth cursed. Of course! This close to Tartarus, monsters would reform instantly!

Percy started running around the fallen monster, stabbing it in random places and at random times. This kept it on the ground and out of combat, but Annabeth could quickly see that it wasn't enough to kill it. "Jesus!" Percy said, out of breath. "Why can't this thing just die?"

"Simple."

Annabeth whirled her head around to where the voice came from, but she couldn't discern a location. The sound seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.

Percy stopped for a second. "What-" And the monster swung it's paw around and slammed Percy into the wall of the cavern beneath the niche. The back of his head hit the wall and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

"Percy!" Annabeth shrieked. She leaped out of the niche, and when she landed on the ground, a sharp pain shot up her left ankle. She looked down and stifled a gasp. She noticed that she had a gash on her foot, coming from one of the beast's paws. A shock traveled through her body when she saw the skin around her foot starting to turn...a pale shade of green?

Percy wasn't moving.

A man emerged out of thin air. He was dressed formally, with a suit and tie, but had a godly aura around him. "This is my pet, Winston. To answer this young man's question-" he gestured towards the still, lifeless body of Percy "-Winston was born and raised in Tartarus. Conceived in darkness, he knows no fear, has no physical or mental boundaries, and does _not_ lose." He petted Winston's head to calm him down, which seemed to work. "He obeys only me and the eternal master."

"Gaea," Annabeth guessed. She cradled Percy's body protectively in her hands, though she didn't know how much it would help. "Who are you?"

"I'm surprised you didn't notice me before," he chuckled. "You do seem to know a lot about me and my friends."

"Ba, the former god of might." Cratos had suddenly appeared behind the god Ba- her brother? Annabeth checked the time on the watch that Cratos had given her. It was time for her to come.

She mentally smacked herself in the forehead. Of course! Time flows by faster in Tartarus than on earth!

Cratos unsheathed her twin Stygian blades and slashed at where Ba stood, but he mysteriously vanished from sight and then reappeared a few yards away. "Sister," he growled, "how kind of you to show up." He looked down at Winston and pointed at Annabeth and the unconscious Percy. "Finish them off."

Cratos's eyes widened. "No!" But two gold swords, made up of an unfamiliar material, materialized in his hands and he slashed at Cratos, who was forced to defend.

Winston rushed towards the two young demigods. Annabeth couldn't risk Percy getting more hurt than he already was, so in a burst of adrenalin, she rolled him up into the niche and dove to the side. The monster skidded on its heels and smashed into the wall. The impact seemed to have woken up Percy, as he wearily sat up from his position in the cave. "Annabeth?"

Annabeth was running in circles around the monster, trying to confuse its sense of direction. She knew that living in darkness for its whole life wouldn't have done much for its reaction time and reflexes. "My knife!" she yelled at him. "Toss me my other knife!"

Percy reached back and grabbed it from the floor and when Annabeth made her rotation back towards him, he threw the knife at her. She now had both of them.

She caught it by the handle and crossed the two blades. In one fluid motion, she used her spinning momentum to throw herself on the ground. She violently skidded towards Winston, forcing him to stop for a second while he changed directions. As he was doing that, she slid under his stomach and jerked her hands in opposite directions so the blades uncrossed, leaving two big, deep cuts in the monster's side in the shape of a large "X". As she slid out from under the monster, she spun around and got up on one knee, one of her knives pointing outwards, one down at the side (she would later describe this to her fellow demigods as "kind of like how Iron Man lands"). It was a move she'd previously practiced over and over at camp, thinking it would become useful one day. She was glad it did.

Meanwhile, Cratos was battling her brother, Ba. Thousands of years of anger fueled her as she mercilessly slashed at him, but Ba fought back with just as much rage. His eyes started to glow red and then, suddenly, burst into twin balls of fire. Annabeth was reminded of a day, a long time ago, when she'd helplessly sat and watched Percy fight Ares on the Los Angeles beach.

About half of Winston's body turned to dust, and for a minute, Annabeth was hopeful that he would finally disintegrate for good. But he roared with anger and rage and reformed in one giant effort, back into the monster he once was.

Annabeth hung her head. "Oh, come _on!"_

Percy leaped out of the cave and drove his sword into its head, but Winston shook it off and his cracked skull came back together. Annabeth made another "X" strike, this time on the beast's neck, but it barely left a scratch on him. At this rate, it would take days for them to do away with this...thing.

Cratos had backed Ba into a corner, much to his annoyance. With one strong, amazingly powerful effort (she _was_ the goddess of power, after all) she brought both of her swords down onto her brother's swords. He quickly crossed one over the other to absorb some of the impact, but the blast knocked his feet out from under him and sent his swords flying away into the distance.

Annabeth rushed over to help Cratos finish off Ba, temporarily leaving Percy alone with Winston (she would later curse herself for making such a foolish mistake). Cratos sheathed her swords and took out two short, extremely sharp throwing knives from her pockets. With a flick of the wrist, she sent the two deadly projectiles whizzing at Ba's face. He dodged one of them, but the other one buried itself in his rib cage.

Annabeth was so busy paying attention to this that she didn't notice some special attention she was getting.

"Annabeth! Look out!" That was Percy.

Cratos turned to them and her eyes widened as she started to sprint towards Annabeth, who turned around to see hundreds of pounds of monster leaping towards her. She reflexively tensed, bracing herself for impact.

A force violently knocked her to the side, but this wasn't Winston, she concluded as she went sprawling to the ground, out of harms way. She looked up and saw, in horror, that Percy had pushed her out of the way and had been stabbed in the chest by the spiky tail of Winston. He lay on the ground, blood seeping through his shirt, writhing in pain.

In anger, Cratos threw one of her swords at Ba. It would have impaled him right in the forehead had he not disappeared at the last possible second. She tossed the second sword to Annabeth as Winston started to charge her. Seething with rage, Annabeth caught the Stygian Ice sword by the hilt and brought it in an arcing motion across her body. Winston immediately, _finally_, turned to dust.

She tossed the blade to the side and ran over to Percy, Cratos behind her. As she knelt by his side and tears started to come out of her eyes, she noticed that the wound was much worse than she'd first imagined.

Much, _much_ worse.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I think that's a pretty good spot to end this chapter, don't you?

Time is going to start to be a big factor in this story.

Reviews would be greatly appreciated!

**-epicsilverbullet**


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